Din Tai Fung, Sydney

One of the things I really wanted to try in Sydney were xiao long bao, otherwise known as soup dumplings, and where better than Din Tai Fung who claim to have the world's tastiest dumpling (and get great reviews on urbanspoon to back it up). I haven't found anywhere in Tassie that makes XLB - if you know of anywhere, let me know. (Update: apparently Written on Tea in Sandy Bay have them - will go there asap!)

Din Tai Fung is pretty popular, and we were told when we arrived that there'd be a half hour wait before we could get a table. There is an outside area that's entirely designated for people waiting for a seat - it's huge! There were more people to either side of this shot.



While you wait you can watch dumplings being made in the kitchen. You are also given a copy of the menu and an order form that can be handed in before you are seated, meaning speedy service once you finally make it inside.





45 minutes later, we were seated! First up was the Vegetarian Delight: a salad with seaweed, dried tofu and glass noodles, tossed with a light sesame dressing ($3.80). I'm a big fan of Japanese seaweed salads and this dish has a lot in common with those - delicious.



We also ordered green beans with minced pork and dried prawn mincce ($12.80). Pretty tasty, but probably not really worth the price in comparison to the salad.



Crumbed chicken fillet served with fried rice ($12.80). Oh. My. This was the tastiest fried chicken that I've ever had. It was beautifully juicy and the crumb was out of this world, with a flavour reminiscent of Chinese five spice.



Prawn and pork jiao zi (6 for $9.80 - J stole one before I took the photo!). Pretty tasty, but they were eclipsed by the dumplings that come next...



Xiao long bao/pork soup dumplings (8 for $10.80). They were fantastic! A beautifully rich flavoured filling, and I know I haven't had dumpling skins of this quality before. Yum!



Definitely worth the wait. At $50 to feed two it was also terrific value.